A Battlestar Galactica fan has created a full-scale model of the wonderful MK II Colonial Viper ship from the classic sci-fi series. The ship is being created by social media user Baz Arm, and he’s been working on the ship since 2019. This is still a work in progress, but he thinks it will end in 2022.
His original plan was to build the ship out of cardboard, but he ended up using plywood with some repurposed materials like computer parts and aviation equipment. Some of the materials were given it to him by his social media followers. He says:
“I took screenshots from the show and posted online, ‘Does anyone recognise these instruments? Where can I get one?’ I had a hailstorm of people sending me uncalibrated or failed instruments, but they look good and they do the job.”
He wanted to get this amazing ship to be as accurate and detailed as possible, so Baz even went as far as to reach out to visual effects artist Lee Stringer, and Star Trek CGI expert Doug Drexler to help him make things as screen accurate as he could on a budget.
“They were both very helpful and forthcoming and a lot of the set crew have been sending me photos of the building on the set, and behind the scenes stuff. It’s always with a bit of a non-disclosure thing: ‘Please don’t share this on the internet. But anyone who’s building a life-size Viper deserves all the help they can get, so here you go’.”